A New Way to Travel in SA: Transfercar Service Offers Travellers Car Rental at R1 Per Day

Woman buying a new car

Travelling in South Africa can be an expensive affair. Especially if you’re hopping on a plane between Cape Town and Johannesburg or need to get to Durban from Johannesburg in a flash. Things can get even more complicated for those who plan on driving one way and flying the other, especially if you’re planning on renting a car to complete your journey. But, a new car rental service is making life a little easier for travellers in South Africa by offering more choice at an unbeatable price. Transfercar, connects rental companies that need to move cars from one city to another with people looking for a one-way rental at a car rental fee of just R1 per day!

The business started in New Zealand 10 years ago, before expanding to Australia, the USA and Canada a few years later and is now officially in South Africa. Currently, in a trial period as of from 10 August 2019, Transfercar South Africa is testing the service with local drivers between Johannesburg and Durban. Speaking to Business Insider, Transfercar chief marketing officer Pascal Languillon said if all goes well the company hopes to facilitate a few thousand rentals per year in South Africa. “Two thousand, three thousand or four thousand a year. It’s in that range,” said Languillon.

Rental cars are usually moved by truck, after being loaded onto a specialised trailer, or by professional drivers at great expense, Languillon says. But, with Transfercar travellers get the benefit of renting a car for a greatly reduced rental fee just for driving it back to its home base depot. This relocation method spells huge savings for rental car companies who can save as much as a fifth of what they would otherwise pay for relocating the vehicle back to its home depot.

In other markets where the service is available, drivers get added perks like free petrol or even free toll fees during the relocation period, but for now, at least, free petrol is not on offer in South Africa. There are also a few other catches to watch out for when choosing this method of travel.

In addition to paying their own petrol and toll fees, drivers also have to cover the insurance on the vehicle for the duration of the transfer period. The relocation period is also usually very short with most companies requiring the vehicle to be transferred between two cities within one day.

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Volunteer drivers who want to use a vehicle for more than the single day can opt to rent it for longer at something close to normal rates. The most expensive daily rental for a vehicle on Transfercar’s local website is R1,204 per additional day for VW Tiguan, while the cheapest vehicle currently is a VW Polo Vivo, which is priced at R325 per day.

For more information visit the Transfercar website.

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